Where's my chlorine?

[akenis]

Have a zodiac swg since 05. Usually have it running on setting 1 or 2, out of 5. I used to keep Chlorine readings around 1-3, but have been aiming for 3-5 per the sticky here.

Earlier this year I cleaned the cells, and adjusted all chemistry per the guidelines here. Since a week or two ago, the C levels have been coming in at .5??? I bumped up the setting to 3... and then 4. Still reading .5 . I did the diluted acid treatment on the cells again... no change. They actually got the white stuff build up a little bit after just a week.

The water looks ok, maybe just a bit cloudy.

Is something growing in my pool? or do these things fail abruptly?

Thanks

 

[JasonLion]

It sounds like you have algae. You need to shock the pool. For the initial increase to shock level you should manually add chlorine. Once shock level is established you can use the SWG to help you maintain shock level.

 

[akenis]

Gottcha..

I also grabed some water in a bucket from right after the swg...definitely reads higher.

w/ CYA at 80 pool calc has me shocking to 21 Chlorine. I bumped the swg to the "superchlorinate" mode also.

So how long do I keep the levels up there?

and can the kids use the pool?

Thanks again...

Andrew

 

[Strannik]

Superchlorinate mode doesn't do much, it only sets the production on 100% for 24hrs

You'd need to shock your pool until the chlorine level stops falling dramatically overnight.

So shock in the afternoon, measure, measure in the morning. If it dropped significantly - shock again and so on.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Not a good idea to let kids swim while shocking. Okay with CYA of 80 to swim with higher FC levels, but not shock level. 10-15 with a CYA of 80 is probably fine. Wear old suits, if your concerned about the level.

 

[akenis]

Didn't have much bleach last night. Used what I had and two bags of shock ... 63% dichlor. I think I only got it up to about 16.5. That was the reading this afternoon. Just stocked up on bleach and bumped it up to 21 this afternoon. Guess i should measure to make sure? Man that FC test uses up a lot of R-871... 42 drops!

edit: went ahead and measured it....right at 22 FC.

Guess those bags of dichlor shock don't really get it up to the necessary levels.

And the swg is still running 24/7 to help keep it up there. Will measure tomorrow afternoon.

edit: Within minutes of bupming up the chlorine, I'm noticing fall out on the steps a ledges. Kind of like a blue powder. Is that the dead algae?

edit: So what are my targets tomorrow afternoon. Not sure what to look for as far as FC levels with the swg helping out. How much of a drop do you think would be indicitative of active growth? How little drop would mean its all dead?

Thanks.

 

[frustratedpoolmom]

Didn't have much bleach last night. Used what I had and two bags of shock ... 63% dichlor. I think I only got it up to about 16.5. That was the reading this afternoon. Just stocked up on bleach and bumped it up to 21 this afternoon. Guess i should measure to make sure? Man that FC test uses up a lot of R-871... 42 drops!

edit: went ahead and measured it....right at 22 FC.

Guess those bags of dichlor shock don't really get it up to the necessary levels.

And the swg is still running 24/7 to help keep it up there. Will measure tomorrow afternoon.

edit: Within minutes of bupming up the chlorine, I'm noticing fall out on the steps a ledges. Kind of like a blue powder. Is that the dead algae?

edit: So what are my targets tomorrow afternoon. Not sure what to look for as far as FC levels with the swg helping out. How much of a drop do you think would be indicitative of active growth? How little drop would mean its all dead?

Thanks.

You should test after sunset. Write down your result. Test again first thing in the morning. If you less than 1ppm overnight, the algae is dead. If you lose more than 1ppm, raise back up to shock level, repeating the process tomorrow evening, Tuesday morning.

Not sure if the "blue" stuff is dead algae. Could be a by product of the bagged shock? By the way, be careful adding dichlor- it raises your CYA.

 

[akenis]

Update:

Sunday afternoon 22

+sun +swg on max

Monday afternoon 16.5

Guess it's kind of hard to guage with the sun and swg variables, but I'm guessing it's still growing. Water a bit off color, and cloudy.

Will test tonight after sunset, and at 6am tomorrow. Swg off over night. Then I leave till Friday, so won't be able to test untill then. If it drops down to .5 again, I wasted a lot of bleach If it stabilizes around the normal 4-6...success.

I'm guessing this stuff maybe took hold over a month ago when the Chlorine was way down and the stain treatments.

Will update later. Thanks again.

Andrew

 

[akenis]

Update:

Mon after sunset 16.5 again

+bleach to 21 ppm, swg off

Tue morn just after sunrise 19

Allowing for margin of error, guessing a 2 ppm drop is ok? Bumped up to 21 one last time, and gone till Friday night. Hope the swg can keep it up..

 

[JasonLion]

An overnight FC drop of more than 1.0 usually means there is still algae.